There are numerous manufacturers of spray guns and associated components. In most cases, the spray guns and associated components for one manufacturer are not capable of being used with those of another manufacturer. Many industrial spray guns have at least the following three components:
(a) a spray gun body that is held by the operator or attached to a fixed or automatically movable support during spraying and to which a fluid and propellant source are attached; PA1 (b) a fluid nozzle through which the fluid to be sprayed is ejected from the spray gun during spraying, and PA1 (c) an air cap for providing the propellant to assist in directionally propelling and atomizing the fluid into a spray, and additionally controlling the width or extent of the resulting spray pattern. PA1 (a) precisely sized orifice holes included in the above-mentioned corresponding nozzle carriers so that the atomizing air flow can be appropriately controlled, and PA1 (b) an orifice within an air passage that conducts air to be provided to the fan pattern shaping jets of differently configured air caps, for controlling and limiting air flow to the fan pattern shaping jets as one skilled in the art will understand. Thus, by utilizing this or an equivalent means for regulating air flow, the present invention can be used in constructing spray guns that compensate for different air pressures and different air flow volumes required by differently configured fluid nozzles and air caps, such as those from different manufacturers.
Moreover, it is not uncommon for these latter two components (i.e. the fluid nozzle and the air cap) to be the most important components for providing a desired spray pattern. Further, in some cases a single manufacturer may have different mounting configurations for these components on various models of spray guns. Heretofore there has been no spray gun body that allows these latter two components to be interchangeable and attachable to a single spray gun body. Accordingly, a spray gun operator may be required to use and maintain a number of different spray guns depending upon the manufacturer and configuration of the fluid nozzle and air cap that is desired to be used for a particular spraying task. Thus, it would be advantageous to have a spray gun assembly that allows the attachment of different fluid nozzles and air caps.